Heads of State

If you were there that Friday evening in 1997 when the reunited New Edition came to town and performed at the long-gone arena known as The Summit, there's a good chance you were disappointed by the whole affair. Apart from the group taking an hour and a half to start the show, one of them, Ricky Bell, was absent. So, during the part of the show where the members split up and went into medleys of their solo/side projects, that meant no Bell Biv DeVoe. Now, Bobby Brown, Ralph Tresvant and Johnny Gill are back and have taken BBD out of the equation altogether. Calling themselves the Heads of State — this tour is a warm-up before they get in the studio and reportedly record a new album under the new name — the three main troubadours of the definitive '80s boy band (sorry, Menudo!) will most likely do all their New Edition and solo hits, without those other three guys hogging the spotlight. Hopefully it won't take 90 minutes to bring their asses onstage this time, though.